The Gentleman in the Garden: The Influential Landscape of James Fenimore Cooper examines the profound and previously unrecognized relationship between landscape and social standing in the work of James Fenimore Cooper. Russell T. Newman looks at the use of landscape in a wide array of Cooper’s novels to illustrate the great author’s distinctive outlook on what it meant to be a gentleman in the early days of America. Both a broad overview of Cooper’s work and an in-depth examination of its views on society,The Gentleman in the Garden is more than a glimpse into the pioneer aesthetic of one of America’s earliest authors: it demonstrates how Cooper re-defined the concept of the gentleman to suit American life. Only in the land of democracy, opportunity and rolling countryside can a true Cooper gentleman emerge.